Costa Christmas 2013. (Picture heavy)

I'm a complete and utter Costa fiend and always become excited when their Christmas menus are released. I adore their frosted mint hot chocolate and was extremely sad to find out that it wouldn't be returning this year.

On a happier note, their Christmas takeaway cups this year are completely and utterly adorable.

The full list of their Christmas offerings (taken directly from their website)

Seasonal Drinks:

Black Forest Hot Chocolate
Chocolate & Orange Mocha Latte
Gingerbread & Cream Latte
Hot Spiced Apple
Salted Caramel Latte
White Hot Chocolate

Festive Food:
Brie, Bacon and Cranberry Sourdough Panini
Pulled Pork Wrap
Turkey, Stuffing and Bacon
Soignon Goats Cheese & Christmas Chutney Panini

Christmas Treats:
Black Forest Fancy
Chocolate & Orange Fancy
Chocolate Yule Log
Gingerbread Muffin
Gluten Free Christmas Cake
Honeycomb Crunch
Marshmallow & Chocolate Cupcafke
Mini Chocolate Cornflake Clusters
Mince Tart
Rich Chocolate & Rasberry Torte
Ruby The Reindeer
Stollen Bites

So far, I've tried several of their Christmas offerings and here's my verdict on each of them.

White Hot Chocolate & Cream

With caramel sauce instead of cherry sauce.

I've never heard of any coffee shops selling white hot chocolate so my curiosity piped up instantly. I had to try it.

I made the mistake of ordering a large and found that it gets sickly after a while so I recommend ordering a medium. I prefer it without the cherry sauce but then again, I hate anything cherry. I've also had it with caramel sauce instead of cherry which I loved.

2/5 with the cherry sauce. 4/5 without & with the caramel sauce.

Honeycomb Hot Chocolate & Cream 

I adore this! The balance is just right. Not too much honeycomb but not too little either. You can taste it but it's not overpowering. One of my friends tried a bit of it on Thursday and he said it was really sweet so if you're not a fan of sweet drinks, I'd stay away from this one. 5/5

Chocolate & Orange Mocha Latte



 I hate coffee but curiosity got the better of me. I couldn't taste much chocolate & orange but I still liked it. I don't think I'd get it again, though. 3/5

Hot Spiced Apple

This tastes like strong hot apple juice with a kick of cinnamon. I can find cinnamon to be overpowering but not with this. I really liked it but found it quite hard to get through. It took me nearly an hour to finish it.

I'm in no hurry to get another one but I'll probably get at least one more before they go. 4/5

Honeycomb Crunch

I was so excited about trying this but to say that it disappointed me is a huge understatement. It was vile. It was so disgusting I threw it away after a few bites. 0/5

I didn't think about photographing it individually and I won't buy another one for the purpose of photographing it.

Chocolate Yule Log

A bit too sickly for my liking unfortunately. I love chocolate but this was just too much for me. 2/5

Chocolate & Orange Fancy

 I LOVE THIS. I adore anything chocolate orange and it didn't disappoint.

Thankfully, the cake wasn't too dry which I find with a few of Costa's cakes. However, it depends slightly on which one you go to. If there was only one item from the Christmas menu I'd want to be permanent, this would be it. 5/5

Overall, I love their Christmas menu! Their Christmas products are available until 2nd January so if you want to try anything on the menu, head to Costa soon if there's one near you.

Week in photographs.

I apologise for not blogging over the last few weeks. I haven't felt motivated and don't want to blog for the sake of blogging. Nothing worth blogging about has happened anyway.

That said, however, I'm working on a review of sorts of all the items from the Costa Christmas 2013 menu I've tried so far so keep an eye out for it!

On Monday, I went to Costa with one of my friends and remembering a friend's suggestion from last week, I ordered a white hot chocolate with caramel sauce and edible gold stars instead of cherry sauce while waiting for him. I'll be getting it again for sure. I'm not a fan of anything cherry and the cherry sauce is no exception.

Afterwards, we went to Subway for lunch where I had my first meal there for over a year. Sadly, my knee injuries flared up and I had to go home earlier than planned because the painkillers were taking longer than usual to work. We still had a great time together, though.

My copy of Showtime, Storytime by Nightwish arrived on Tuesday. I adore it! I've been listening to it non-stop since. I watched a bit of the documentary but switched it off and don't plan to watch it any further for personal reasons.

 Floor Jansen has improved tenfold since joining Nightwish last year. I've been a fan of her for years but she was rusty with Nightwish at first. Now, however, is a completely different story. I still don't like her take on some of the songs but she's well and truly improved. I can't wait for the new album to be released!

I went to Garlic & Shots in Soho with one of my friends on Wednesday and had a great night as usual. I had a horseradish shot (pictured) which was vile. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be and I've had worse but it was vile all the same.

I saw The Hunger Games: Catching Fire yesterday and loved it. It's outstanding. I wasn't a fan of the book because while some parts of it were brilliant, it took too long for me to get in to but I had high expectations for the film and wasn't let down. I loved every second.

It's easily the best book to film adaption I've ever seen. I'm usually highly critical of book to film adaptions but I have nothing bad to say about it.

If you want to see it and haven't already, do it. I couldn't recommend it more. I'm planning on pre-ordering the DVD soon and would see it again on Tuesday because of the cheap ticket prices but can't because of family matters that need to be taken care of. I can't complain, though.

If you live near a Cineworld cinema, register at mycineworld to get 10% off your cinema tickets. It doesn't sound like a lot but cinema tickets are usually ridiculously expensive so any discount you can get helps a bit so take advantage.

 Another good way of getting cheaper tickets is to try going during off-peak times (generally Monday - Friday before 5pm). However, this will depend significantly from cinema to cinema so make sure to check.

For more information, go to this link.

I hope you've all had a good week and have a good weekend!